BBC at 100: Plath’s Maternity Verse Drama

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I’ve been writing on Syliva Plath’s engagement witn BBC Radio as a writer and poet – August 19th 2022 marked the 60th anniversary of  the broadcast of Plath’s  Three Women on the Third Programme . Produced by Douglas Cleverdon this was Plath’s only commisioned work for the BBC. Set on a materinty ward it follows the late pregnancies and birthing experiences of three unnamed patients. It is a remarkable work for its time addressing issues about consent, medical intervention, gynaecological rights, miscarriage and abortion. The research has been inclluded  as an essay “Sylvia Plath’s Three Women: Producing a Poetics of Listening at the BBC” in  this  insghtful book of essays.    The… Read More →

“Does dim rhyfel nawr – ma’r drws ar agor tan y wawr” Er Cof am David R. Edwards

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  Yn ddiochgar ofnadwy  i Sioned Rowlands  ac O’r Pedwar Gwynt wnath roi sbardun i sgwennu yn y man cynta; Thanks to Sioned Rowlands and O’r Pedwar Gwynt  who asked  (original in Welsh https://pedwargwynt.cymru – subscription) It is no secret that Datblygu first found their followers outside of Wales. As a teenager I attended gigs in remote country hotels where many of the Welsh speaking audience did not “get” Datblygu. The adulation of Dave in Wales has been very much a belated affair. I am certain David R . Edwards would curl his lips with bemusement at any overt hagiography. Unlike many writing eulogies for David R. Edwards, I never met… Read More →

Blackbox Manifold 25 – Experiments from Wales 2021

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Issue 25 Blackbox Manifold dedicated to Welsh Innovative Poetry  curated by John Goodby Goodby writes: “This is a selection of recent work by eighteen poets who were born and / or brought up in Wales, or who are from elsewhere but work and write in Wales, or who have other meaningful ties to the country. Most of it was written in the last twelve months or so and therefore dates from the fraught countdown to Brexit, and a good deal of it was written during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, directly or indirectly, it often reflects a strange and changeful period. Some of the poetry has been published before, but… Read More →

New Anthology of Surrealist Poems

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New Anthology of Surrealist Poems Imagined Invited  (Hafan Books, 2020) edited by Peter Greenslade and original artwork by Mark Sanders Sometime last year  the kind David Greenslade sent our an invitation to some poets Surreal Poetry Game “This  Game has rules  (repeat . . . r.u.l.e.s.    draconian/brutal) You are invited to write a poem meditating on the parlour game of Imaginary Dinner Guests (this is the game where we ask, “Who would you invite if you could invite anyone from time and space?”)  The Rules  Please compose a poem mentioning: between three to five guests  (no more than five) at least one of the guests must have a connection with Wales at least… Read More →

Evacuation Route

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  This article- prose document has been published in Welsh in O’r Pedwar Gwynt  https://pedwargwynt.cymru  (Diolch mawr i Sioned Rowlands)   In the Californian sky you notice a web of lines between  the telegraph poles. A cat cradle of connections. The loops of electricity create heavy black threads in air. Your eye catches the odd yellow plastic ribbon tied around a pole’s waist. It is 1991 and these are markers of the first Iraq war. Berkeley has not always been so hospitable to its returning veterans. The following spring there will be a curfew in this city. Rodney King’s  savage beating by the LAPD, and the acquittal of the police… Read More →

Isabelle Galleymore’s Significant Other THE POLLARD PRIZE 2020

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      REVIEW  FOR POLLARD FIRST VOLUME PRIZE 2020 – JUDGING PANEL Pollard Prize Announcement 21st April, 2020 Isabelle Galleymore’s stunning first volume Significant Other, describes encounters between the natural world and human consciousness. The volume’s spare, if not condensed lyrics, represent minute acts of perception. Galleymore’s tightly-wrought poems document our world during a time of ecological crisis; these poems represent the Anthropocene. Using the lyric form as a recording of precise detail and as an anatomy of emotion, Galleymore creates a compendium of our creature world while narrating stories of human love lost. The intertwining of personal narratives with a documenting of natural world, complicates the relationship between… Read More →

Cardiff Poetry Experiment: 15th February 2020

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As part of the Cardiff Poetry Festival I’ll be reading at an event hosted by Cardiff Poetry Experiment Saturday February 15 2020 Temple of Peace 18:00 Ailbhe Darcy hosts The Cardiff Poetry Experiment: Irish Women Poets “Wales Book of the Year winner, poet Ailbhe  Darcy introduces this trio of performers who expand the limits of the Irish canon. Cherry Smyth will read from her extraordinary book on the Irish famine, Famished, accompanied by ‘Powerful, freewheeling’ jazz singer Lauren Kinsella. Multi-prizewinning poet Nerys Williams, originally from West Wales, now based in Dublin, reads from her thought-provoking collection, Cabaret, and new work”   See more here https://cardiffpoetryfestival.com/event-14/  

Poetry File on RTE Lyric FM: Broadcast Poem 18/5/19

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  RTE’s Lyric poetry slot in 2019 Each week on ‘Lyric Notes,’ Liz Nolan introduces a contemporary poem, read by the poet. My second poem ‘Performance’ (a poetic prose experiment) was broadcast on 18th May, 2019. As part of it I examined the process of writing the work. It can be listened to from here here

Poetry File on RTE Lyric FM: Broadcast Poem 6/4/19

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RTE’s Lyric poetry slot in 2019 Each week on ‘Lyric Notes,’ Liz Nolan introduces a contemporary poem, read by the poet. My poem ‘Grace Notes for Amelia’ (offering a narrative on Earhart’s mis-landing in West Wales- yes, a true story ) was broadcast on April 6th, 2019. As part of it I examined the process of writing the work. It can be listened to from here